Car-Killed Deer: A How-To Harvest Guide

As much as I never thought that I’d be the one writing about how to harvest a deer from the side of the road and process it, here I am. In the many talks I’ve given and the many classes I’ve led on Food Freedom, this question always comes up. So many are intrigued to know more. The media feeds on this story, too. I’ve come to see that this skill set and resource of harvesting car-killed deer is far too valuable not to share, and it is not widely distributed information. I know what I share here will be of value to many people.

Rethinking “Roadkill”

First, I don’t say roadkill. I say a deer killed by a car. If a human gets hit by a car, they are still a human. They aren’t considered roadkill. This deer was a deer before it was hit, and afterwards still is first and foremost a deer, a deer that has been killed by a car. The perception most people have of a car-killed deer is not based on experiential knowledge. It is based on assumptions and narratives driven by stories seen on television. These stories are told via lenses of preconceived notions and without reverence to the deer and the life they led up to that point.

Eating car-killed deer is far more of an “all American” thing to do than most would assume. In fact, I’d guess that millions of US Americans alive today have eaten meat from a car-killed animal; deer, moose, elk, bear, grouse, pheasants, turkey, raccoons, possums, alligators and many others. But let’s keep the focus on deer today.

In fact, there are even systems across the nation for communities to harvest car-killed deer. In many counties, the standard practice is to call the sheriff if a deer is hit. If the deer is in harvestable condition, the sheriff then calls the first person on the sign-up list of people who would like to go harvest it. If they don’t answer, they call the next. And this list cycles deer after deer. In other regions, the animal is brought to a processor, who takes care of the deer and then the meat is delivered to members of the community who are food insecure.

To harvest a car-killed deer takes intention, and generally foresight. Most of us don’t just see a car-killed deer and for the first time in our lives think “I’d like to harvest this deer.” No, there is thought, intention and perhaps preparation.

What Items to Have With You

What to carry: a sharp hunting knife, old cotton sheets, a couple hand towels and a jug of soapy (biodegradable) water. If you drive, carry these items with you whenever you are driving on roads where deer are hit. I have harvested deer while being a passenger in a dozen vehicles and I am often traveling with these items. This is for harvesting on the spot. If you pick up the whole deer, then just a tarp will do and if you’re in a pickup truck then nothing is needed at all.

How to Tell if a Car-Killed Deer is Harvestable

Now you are prepared to harvest a deer and you’ll need to know what to do when you arrive at the deer. These instructions are designed for finding a deer you haven’t hit yourself. If you’ve hit the deer, your considerations are much simpler.

First, decide whether the deer is still harvestable. To do this, regain your common senses, if you’ve lost them. This involves your senses of sight, smell and touch.

Using Your Senses: Sight

First, you look. There’s absolutely no harm you can do to yourself by looking. An ideal deer looks like it is taking a nap. There is little blood, the stomach is not ruptured, there are few insects and the deer is not bloated. Yet, none of these visuals mean that a deer is not harvestable. Everything I share here is a guideline, not a rule. Critical thinking is of the essence. I have harvested meat from over a dozen deer and am confident in what I’m sharing. From here on, I am sharing solely from my own experience. I take responsibility for my words and I ask you to take sole responsibility for how you use them. Here is what I am viewing to get a gauge of how long the deer has been there and if it is likely viable to harvest.

Blood: If the blood is still fresh, it is a very recently hit deer.

Bloating: Bloating is a sign of bacteria in the gut starting to reproduce substantially. On warm days, no bloating means the deer is likely quite fresh (or the stomach is ruptured). I’ve harvested many bloated deer.

Eyes: Clear eyes are freshest, cloudiness shows at least a couple hours of sitting, moisture in the eyes is preferred and eyes eaten out is not a reassuring sign. Most deer I harvest have cloudy eyes.

Insects: Some flies are not an issue, however maggots mean the deer has been there long enough for flies to lay eggs and for them to hatch. I don’t recall ever harvesting a deer with maggots.

Animal scavenging: Few people harvest a deer once other animals have started to eat it, with the most common exception of just the eyes having been pecked out. However, I did take a fresh fawn away from a few vultures in Richmond, Virginia once.

Impact damage: Some deer will just obviously not be harvestable due to the damage inflicted by impact. Others will be questionable and many will be clear. A deer hit only in the head is ideal, because the body is often undamaged. In my experience usually at least one of the four shoulders (quarters) will have been hit and damaged. As long as a portion of the deer is not damaged, the deer may be harvestable. Deer hit on highways and roads with a speed limit of no more than 55 miles per hour tend to have the least damage, although I have harvested from the interstate.

Ruptured stomachs: Not ideal, but not necessarily a sign of an unharvestable deer. I have harvested numerous deer with ruptured stomachs. As long as the rupture can be kept separate from the meat that I’m harvesting, I feel comfortable to harvest.

Discoloration of skin: This takes multiple days and I’ve never harvested from a deer at this point.

Using Your Senses: Touch and Smell

If the deer passes your sense of sight, now move on. Next you touch. Actually, before you even get to touch, you may have already smelled it. If you are walking up to the deer and you smell it before your eyes are upon it, that’s a big signal. I’ve never harvested a deer in that scenario. Foul smell is not a “no go” though. Our farts smell, but that doesn’t mean our bodies are foul. The smell could just be gas leaking out or ruptured intestines. But I’m leaving the ultimate smell test until after touch.

Hair: When the hair is pulled, what I’m looking for is the hair to stay intact on the skin. If the hair pulls out easily, the deer has been dead for some time and is likely not harvestable.

Feeling for broken bones: I feel the four quarters for impact damage. I’m seeking quarters that do not have broken bones and damaged muscles.

If it passes your sense of touch, the next step is harvesting.

How Old Can the Deer Be?

Most of the deer I have harvested have been lying on the roadside for anywhere between five and 24 hours. Most commonly I harvest a deer in the late morning that was hit the night before or a deer late in the day that was hit in the morning. I have harvested deer that had been out from 6 p.m. until 3 p.m. the next day with a daytime high in the seventies. Spring and Fall are ideal times for harvesting as the weather is cooler. Extreme heat makes for much quicker spoilage.

How to Harvest the Meat

Ideally, the deer is in an area where I can drag it into the woods or behind a structure or landscape to a space where no passing cars can clearly see me. The car is parked fully off the road to create as little disruption to other drivers as possible.

To start, I position the deer on its four knees. I take my sharp knife and cut into the skin right along the spine. I run my knife from the inside of the skin, not the outside, along the spine from the neck to the rump and pull the skin aside a couple inches. I then drag my knife along the vertebrae on one side. I reach my fingers in and roll the backstraps out with just my fingers and the palm of my hand.

Using Your Senses: Smell

Lastly, you smell the meat. Again, there’s no harm you can do to yourself by smelling, except for experiencing a moment of displeasure.

Ideally, the meat will smell sweet. If someone had described this to me without my experiencing it, I don’t know if I’d have understood. But the meat smells sweet when it is fresh. Some deer, especially bucks in mating season, can have a stronger scent and still be harvestable and I have harvested deer that had a bit of an unpleasant smell that makes me think of hormones. However, I think there’s always some element of sweetness there.

Backstraps, Quarters and Neck Harvest

The backstraps are the easiest to harvest. On numerous occasions, I have harvested only the backstraps (as long as I wouldn’t be fouling a deer that someone else would have harvested more substantially). The backstraps are almost never damaged by impact.

From here, I will harvest whichever of the four quarters are still harvestable. I cut around the areas of broken bones and substantial blood from impact. I’m always amazed at how little blood there is. In fact, it’s not even a bloody process. Muscles are amazingly compartmentalized, meaning there is minimal need to cut into them. The front quarters are attached only by a ball and socket joint and pop off entirely. The skin peels away from the meat quite easily with the knife blade and my fingers. Minimal hair gets on the meat by keeping the knife on the inside of the skin and cutting outwards when cutting through. After the quarters, I will often harvest the neck, which is the hardest part to do with a deer on the ground. A bonesaw is another tool that is very helpful.

Tips for a Clean Harvest

While harvesting, I have soapy (ideally warm) water to wipe off my hands and the knife as needed, keeping them generally clean. I have my hand towels to wipe off my hands and the knife.

As I am harvesting, I am taking each piece of meat that I remove and wrapping it into cut out sections of old cotton sheets. Generally, the backstraps go into a piece, each quarter goes into a piece and any large chunks of meat such as a part of the rump goes into a piece. Ideally, I have pieces large enough to wrap each item a couple times.

Hanging a deer allows for easier harvesting and the ability and potential to harvest much more meat. I have never done this. I have never harvested organs from a car-killed deer and I have always avoided any area that comes in contact with the inner cavity. Bacteria that can make us sick are most present in the digestive system. In a hunted deer, this is not an issue at all, however, this is the precaution I take when harvesting car-killed deer. If I ever was in a car that hit a deer or was called to a freshly hit deer, I would harvest substantially more than I have to date.

Getting All the Meat?

Returning the Body to Earth

I don’t worry about getting all of the meat, as I am already giving respect to the resource by harvesting it, and doing my best in a sometimes difficult circumstance. After harvesting what I feel content with, I drag the animal to an area where it is able to return to the Earth, being eaten by animals and decomposing into the soil. If water is near, I drag it away from the water, ideally into a wooded area. I give my thanks to the deer for nourishing me and to all that gave life to that deer.

Storage of Meat

The meat wrapped in cloth does not need to go into a cooler or a refrigerator right away. In fact, it is standard practice to hang a deer in the open air to age the meat. I always keep the meat dry, not directly on ice. From here, I generally get it into a refrigerator or cooler within a few hours. In the fridge, I leave it wrapped in cloth for up to a week. I generally feast, share with others and store the bounty. I freeze, pressure can and dehydrate the meat. I make broth from the bones.

There are many online resources that teach butchering and I learned in part from the YouTube Channel, “Deer Meat for Dinner.” They teach butchering more thoroughly than I can in writing.

Community Support

As much as I keep my eyes open for deer as I’m on the road (and yes, I have harvested a deer by bicycle) my success often lies in others having their eyes on the road. I talk to my friends who spend substantial time on the local highways and ask them to contact me if they see a car-killed deer. Ideally, they can stop and take a quick photo, but I never ask more of them than what they are joyful to do. I have also posted successfully in community Facebook groups and on Craigslist.

Closing

When I set out to write this guide, I planned for two pages max. Here we are five pages later and I have even restrained myself from including numerous details and many relevant stories. I am hesitant to discuss this topic because I know how some of society perceives me (as “that guy who eats roadkill”) and I worry about losing my credibility in a society that is afraid of stepping outside of the norm. But, I share because so many of you have asked and I see such incredible value in this skill. Harvesting car-killed deer has changed the lives of many people, providing access to highly nourishing meat, at no financial cost. I know many people who care deeply about animals and Earth who see eating car-killed deer as the pinnacle of eating meat while doing no harm.

Along with the knife, old cotton sheets, hand towels and soapy water, I invite you to keep this book with you in your vehicle to use these instructions. It would be a meaningful gift if you would email me when you harvest your first car-killed deer.

This article is an excerpt from Food Freedom: A Year of Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food. Food Freedom is an empowerment manual to break free from the destructive food system and live in closer harmony with Earth through growing food, foraging and embracing community.

We welcome you to order the paperback copy here or download the eBook here.

100% of profits, after book distribution, are donated to Gardens of Liberation, supporting Indigenous and Black-led food sovereignty initiatives.